New coach brings new outlook for Melbourne

Tempering the victory with the knowledge that the win had only come in a pre-season competition Melbourne coach Paul Roos was regardless mindful that for his group of players any win was worth celebrating as a confidence booster.

Melbourne out-possessed and over ran a sloppy Richmond then held on for a 14 point victory in Roos’ first outing as coach.

'The win is sort of irrelevant but perhaps for a group that has been pretty fragile it gives them a bit of confidence' said Paul Roos. Photo: Getty Images

A gracious Roos quickly acknowledged the contrasting fortunes and states of development of the two sides in saying the win meant far more for his side than defeat meant for Richmond.

“It’s hard for me to say (what it meant) because I have only just got here but from my point of view it’s more the game style, the way we play, the win is sort of irrelevant but perhaps for a group that has been pretty fragile it gives them a bit of confidence so it’s probably pretty important that we hung on in the end,” Roos said.

“It was probably more important for us than it was for the Tigers to be honest so probably a little bit more important for us from a confidence point of view that the guys have a win even though it does not mean a lot but for that confidence it probably means a lot.”

Richmond’s Chris Newman suffered a jarred or hyper-extended right knee when he landed awkwardly in a marking contest, but Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said he was confident he has sustained no serious damage.

Advertisement

"He's up walking around, so we're hoping it's jarred,” he said.

In the final term Richmond gave away a goal from a free kick and 50 metre penalty after inexplicably commencing the quarter with 19 men on the field set up to play.

You will now receive updates fromRealfooty Newsletter

Realfooty Newsletter

"That probably summed up the night,” Hardwick said. "For whatever reason ... I'm not exactly sure … we obviously had one more player on, I'm not sure whose fault it was.”

Rehardless of it being a Nab Challenge match Hardwick was disappointed in his side’s lack of intensity and said irrespective of the competition his side defended poorly and had been thoroughly denied the ball – 445 touches to 262 – by Melbourne.

"We didn't defend anywhere near well enough and to give up 139 uncontested marks was testament to that,” he said.

Hardwick praised the game of rookie Anthony Miles but also observed that it was not ideal that a young player won more clearances than any person on his team (8).

Reece Conca, Daniel Jackson and Jack Riewoldt are all likely to play the enxt Nab Challenge game.

Roos said the Demons would likely have tall forward Chris Dawes and Jesse Hogan available for the next match.

He said the lack of tall forwards affected the ball movement on Friday night.

“We didn’t have a big forward line, we probably turned it over a little bit but we had to manufacture forward entries and manufacture the way we come out of defence … so you would like to straighten up a little bit and you would like to get the ball in quicker and deep at times,” he said

Roos said youngster Jay Kennedy-Harris who kicked three goals impressed after only getting an opportunity through others being missing.

“He is exciting, he has done everything right I tend to want to keep those guys out of the fray a bit … Is he in your best 22? Time will tell but I really like the way he goes about it, he has good habits.

“Every step is important to us. But again bearing in mind this is nab cup round one and Richmond they are a very, very good team, they are a lot better team than that they are at a different stage.

“We are under no illusions what this game represents for Richmond and represents for football in general. There is still a lot of work to be done.”